PEEBLES PROFILES
EPISODE 208
Georg Bruchmüller
THE ARTILLERY INSTRUCTOR
Georg Bruchmüller was born in Berlin on December 11, 1863 into a middle-class family. After studying physics at Berlin University, the nineteen-year-old Bruchmüller became a three-year volunteer in the Imperial German Army. In August 1883, he joined the First East Prussian “von Linger” Foot Artillery Regiment based in Königsberg. Weeks later, Bruchmüller was with the Eighth Rhenish Foot Artillery Regiment in Metz. These foot regiments were armed with heavier guns, howitzers, and mortars. The latter pieces were designed principally for siege warfare, which was taking a larger role in field operations.
Over the next ten years, Bruchmüller earned three promotions: ensign in March 1884, second lieutenant in February 1885, and first lieutenant in September 1893. Within a month of the latter promotion, he was an instructor at the Advanced Ordnance School.
Promoted to captain in August 1896, Bruchmüller joined the Third Brandenburg “General Feldzeugmeister” Foot Artillery Regiment based in Mainz. Then in the spring of 1905, he was made company commander of the Lehr-Bataillon (Demonstration Battalion) of the Royal Prussian Fußartillerie-Schießschule (Foot Artillery Firing School) in Jüterbog. Bruchmüller was again an instructor at Berlin’s Advanced Ordnance School in February 1907. He was assigned to write the tactical manual for foot artillery. Captain Arthur Bilse was a heavy artillery specialist and fellow instructor.
In the autumn of 1908, Bruchmüller was promoted to major. He then took command of the Upper Rhine (Eight District) Fortress Artillery in the spring of 1909. Ten months later, Bruchmüller was a battalion commander with the “von Hindersin” (1st Pomeranian) Foot Artillery Regiment Number Two based in the West Pomeranian town of Swinemünde (in a lagoon on the Baltic coast).
By 1913, Bruchmüller was back yet again at the Advanced Ordinance School in Berlin. But soon, he was thrown from his horse and subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown. Adding to Bruchmüller’s woes was the discovery that he had diabetes. Thus in October 1913, he was medically discharged as a recently-promoted lieutenant colonel… but with the pay of a major!
EXPERTISE IN WAR: “CREEPING BARRAGE” AND “HURRICANE BOMBARDMENT”
With the outbreak of the Great War in August 1914, Georg Bruchmüller was recalled to active duty as artillery commander of the Kulm Fortress in West Prussia. His time in the posted lasted a mere week… and on August 8th, Bruchmüller took command of the Second Guards Landwehr Foot Artillery Battalion.
On October 22, 1914, Bruchmüller was made artillery staff officer with the newly-formed Corps Zastrow, named for its commander, General der Infanterie Ernst von Zastrow, who was also military governor of Graudenz. But Bruchmüller’s time with the corps was short… and nearly a month later, he was named artillery commander of the 86th Infantry Division.
Under the leadership of Oskar von Hutier, Georg Bruchmüller was the chief officer in charge of artillery preparation for all major offensives on the Eastern Front. Soon, he essentially functioned as the chief advisor of artillery issues both East AND West. Bruchmüller fought in thirteen actions, winning the Iron Cross (both Second and First Class). In the latter part of March 1916, the Russians conducted the Lake Naroch Offensive. For the counterstrike, Bruchmüller persuaded the commander of the German Tenth Army, Hermann von Eichhorn, to centralize the artillery command. Bruchmüller planned the leading of the infantry attack with a “creeping barrage”, which contributed to a German victory! For his efforts, Bruchmüller was awarded Imperial Germany’s highest military award, the Pour le Mérite, in May 1917. He was one out of only four senior artillery officers to receive the “Blue Max” during the war.
In the West, the Allies used prolonged bombardments before an infantry assault in an effort to destroy the enemy. The seven-day barrage by the B.E.F. preluding the Battle of the Somme was one such example. However, the Germans favored short, intense bombardments (also called “hurricane bombardments”), like the ten-hour barrage which opened the Battle of Verdun.
Bruchmüller devised intricate, centrally-controlled firing plans for such intense bombardments. His operations emphasized fire-in-depth throughout the enemy positions, switching rapidly from target to target and then back again. This required strict, detailed control of every gun to cause maximum disruption of the defenders.
Each battery of each type of weapon received fire missions on a timetable. The first stage hit headquarters, phone links, command posts, enemy batteries, and infantry positions. This fire was sudden, concentrated, and made extensive use of gas shells.
In the second stage, more guns engaged the enemy batteries; much firing was required. For example, one hundred shells from 150-millimeter howitzers were considered necessary to eliminate one enemy gun pit.
The third stage directed fire for effect on targets. Some batteries continued to shell infantry positions, while heavy pieces engaged long-range targets to cut off reinforcements. Advancing infantry followed a precisely-organized “creeping barrage”, known as Feuerwalze (fire roller) to the Germans.
For some of the key counterattacks during Russia’s Brusilov Offensive in mid-1916, Bruchmüller directed seventy-six artillery batteries of Army Group von Linsingen. In July 1917, he took command of Artillerie-Kommandeur 86 (Arko 86), as well as 134 batteries during the counterattack that retook Tarnopol from the Russians in the aftermath of the doomed Kerensky Offensive.
Surprise was essential for creating maximum disruption. Bruchmüller adopted the Pulkowski Method for bombardments without the customary registration fire. The position of each gun was surveyed. Knowing the muzzle velocity of the gun, air temperature, wind velocity, and direction (using tables provided by mathematicians as well as pre-registering guns on firing ranges), it was possible to fire fairly accurately at targets on gunnery maps. The Germans concealed their attack preparations… but their initial target data had to be precise.
Georg Bruchmüller commanded the artillery of General of the Infantry Oskar von Hutier’s German Eighth Army in the victory over the disintegrating Russian forces at Riga in September 1917. The unit soon moved West for the upcoming spring offensive in 1918. The techniques of Georg Bruchmüller were taught to gunners at a special school in Belgium weeks before the launch. Infantry officers were also taught his methods. Thus, there were joint infantry-artillery exercises with live ammunition, with advances shielded by the “creeping barrage”.
The first attack, Operation Michael, began in the Somme with a barrage of three and a half million shells in five hours (almost two hundred shells a second). Defying instructions, Bruchmüller eliminated preliminary registration by firing from the map. Five days after the launch of the Kaiserschlacht (March 26, 1918), Bruchmüller was awarded the oak leaves to his “Blue Max”, one of just two higher artillery commanders to be given the decoration!
Bruchmüller then directed the artillery during the next attack at the Battle of the Lys (Operation Georgette). However, the artillery units in Flanders had not yet been trained in the Pulkowski Method. The guns were registered by observation during the first phase of the bombardment.
Still an officer on temporary recall, Bruchmüller became a full colonel in April 1918. He then commanded the artillery of Army Group Crown Prince in the Third Battle of the Aisne (Operation Blücher-Yorck), the Battle of Matz (Operation Gneisnau), and the Second Battle of the Marne (Operation Marneschutz-Reims, also known as Friedensturm, or “peace offensive”). The artillery fired from the map in darkness and the infantry advanced at first light.
DEFEAT AND DEATH
Despite his brilliance for artillery planning and employment, Georg Bruchmüller could not save Imperial Germany from defeat in the autumn of 1918. He was not eligible for the post-war Reichswehr, because the Treaty of Versailles prohibited heavy artillery. Regardless, he retired from active duty on January 18, 1919.
Bruchmüller wrote several books on artillery that were translated into English, French, and Russian. On the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Tannenberg (August 27, 1939), he was given the character title of major general.
Georg Bruchmüller died at Garmisch-Partenkirchen on January 26, 1948 at the age of eighty-four.
DECORATIONS AND LEGACY
Bruchmüller’s other war-time decorations included the following:
-Saxon Order of Albert
– Austrian Military Service Cross
– Austrian Order of the Iron Crown, Third Class
– Bavarian Order of Military Merit, Third Class
– Bremen Hanseatic Cross.
He also carried the nickname Durchbruchmüller, a play on his name meaning “Breakthrough Bruchmüller.”
First Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff cited Georg Bruchmüller as an example of “the decisive influence of personality on the course of events in war”. British military historian B.H. Liddell Hart said that Bruchmüller was “the greatest artillery expert of the war”.